OTTAWA-
Ottawa protest organizer Tamara Lich will remain in custody in Ottawa until at least Tuesday after she was arrested in Alberta for allegedly violating bail conditions.
Lich appeared in an Ottawa court Thursday via video link from the Ottawa Police Station on the new charge. A full-day bond hearing is scheduled for next Tuesday.
The Crown alleges that Lich breached a bail condition that prohibited him from communicating with 10 other people involved in the Freedom Convoy that occupied Ottawa earlier this year, including Tom Marazzo, a spokesman for the protests, unless he was in the presence of his legal adviser.
She was photographed with Marazzo at a “Freedom Award” gala in Toronto on June 16. The Crown claims that a video posted on Facebook shows that she too sat at Marazzo’s table after speaking at the event.
“After Lich receives his award and returns to his table, Lich can be seen talking to Tom Marazzo,” according to the prosecution’s summary of charges filed in court Thursday.
“Also, during the night, Lich and Marazzo, along with others, posed together for a photograph, with Lich and Marazzo side by side, arm in arm.”
Crown’s materials include a link to a Facebook video that purportedly shows that “there is also communication. She seems to be whispering something in his ear.”
The awards gala was organized by the Edmonton-based Justice Center for Constitutional Freedom, a charity that litigates against COVID-19 mandates.
JCCF attorney Keith Wilson represented Lich and other defendants in a civil action over the protest, brought on behalf of downtown residents and businesses.
Wilson said on social media that week that Lich did not breach her conditions because JCCF lawyers were present at the event when she was photographed with Marazzo, who was unsuccessfully running for the Ontario Party in this month’s provincial election.
Lich was first arrested in Ottawa in February. She is charged jointly with another protest organizer, Chris Barber, with mischief, counseling to commit intimidation, obstructing police, and counseling to obstruct police.
His original bail conditions prohibited him from traveling to Ontario while awaiting trial, but at his request, the court modified those conditions in May to allow him to attend the gala and travel around the province.
Lich’s terms also require him not to organize or promote protests related to COVID-19 or the Freedom Convoy.
A summary of documents produced by the Crown also cites Lich’s speech at the gala.
“He indicated that the circumstances he suffered after his arrest will not be unique,” the summary says, “if ‘we’ do not ‘stand up straight, heels squared, and unite to defend our Bill of Rights and Liberties’. .’”